There have been a number of designs of highly visible, reflective warning signs for use by motorists to attract help in the event of car trouble or other problems. One example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,541 to Louis May et al., entitled TRIANGULAR FOLDING REFLECTIVE TRAFFIC MARKER, which patent was assigned to the present assignee and which is incorporated herein by reference. In the May patent, a triangular marker includes a reflective base member and two reflective side members which fold to a compact storage configuration when not in use, but which interlock to make a highly visible triangle on a swivel base when deployed in use. The May device was designed for placement on the ground or other flat surface.
A number of other motorist warning devices have been designed for attachment to a vehicle, such as an automobile. Many of these prior art devices are designed for attachment to a side window of an automobile. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,323 to Hawes, entitled EMERGENCY SIGN ASSEMBLY; U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,152 to Morton, entitled DISTRESS SIGNALING DEVICE; U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,039 to DeFuria, entitled HIGHWAY Safety aid; U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,849 to Tuleja, entitled REFLECTING TRIANGULAR WARNING DEVICES; U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,978 to Brucato, entitled AUTA-HELP; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,264 to Johanson et al., entitled DISTRESS STOP WARNING INFORMATION SIGN FOR VEHICLES. Each of these patents involves a warning sign of some type, which is connected to a hook designed to overlap the top of an automobile side window. In virtually all of these patents, this window engaging hook is the only support which the warning sign and, in some cases, a rather lengthy support arm, have. This presents a problem when these devices are used in adverse weather conditions, such as storms or high wind conditions. Furthermore, the signs are designed to be placed on the road side of the vehicle for purposes of enhanced visibility, and, therefore, are exposed to the considerable wind gusts generated by passing cars and, especially, trucks and semi-trailers. This can cause the signs and supports to be bent or broken, and can subject the side window itself to considerable stress.
It is clear that a need exists for a motorist warning marker which conveniently attaches to a vehicle side window, but which is stable under conditions of high wind or gusts. Such a warning marker should be highly visible in use, yet collapsible for convenient storage, and should be economical to manufacture.